


Ambition and Purpose

by Draco10



Category: The Politician (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 07:49:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21095960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco10/pseuds/Draco10
Summary: She is ambitious and filled with purpose. Also hopeless, miserable, neurotic, and definitely not beautiful. Through his friends and, most importantly, River, Payton tries to help Zana succeed and find the purpose to his own ambition.





	Ambition and Purpose

He had his feet propped up on Standish’s (former) desk. Head cocked back. Blasé. The office felt like his already. She stepped into his office as if she was confident but her shoulders shook with nerves.

When Payton heard about Zana, he decided to hear her out - fully aware this was something Standish would never do. Fully aware this meeting was below him.

“Leader Hobart. I am so thankful for this chance to speak with you.”

Peyton sat up and leaned forward to shake her hand.

“Well, you’re a highly regarded young lady. What’s this proposal?”

“New York doesn’t teach macroeconomics”

He smiled a little “Looks like I already disagree with you. We do teach economics, it’s in the state standards.”

“No. You don’t. You teach personal finance.”

”The difference?” She looked at him like he was stupid. 

“You do not teach students about world economic systems and the inequalities within those systems. How can students How can students help solve the problems we all face, how can they understand the world we live within, without knowing anything about world economic equality? This book is the best summery of how the last 500 years of human history have created gross economic inequalities which persist today. Right now 60% of humans live on less then 5 dollars a day.”

“This... a normal politician would remind you our curriculum can’t be politicized,” Peyton replied. She opened her mouth, talking points already lined up. He raised his hand to stop her “But I know that you are smart enough to not need reminding of that. Is this information important? Is it true? Is it unbiased? Will it make our children good citizens? Is it widely accepted by experts?”

She smiled, “Yes, yes, yes, yes, and kind-of.” She said kind-of like she already had a plan for that.

“Kind-of?”

“There are definitely accepted counter-arguments to the book. And you should teach those too. Have kids read The Divide and a conservative book, plus a few historical books or bestsellers. A complete revamp of the state’s economics curriculum.” Payton laughed. “What?”

“So it’s about properly teaching economics, not teaching a particular world-view. You’ve thought this all out.” She nodded. Grinning. Hopeful. Excited. “Well give me the book. At the very least, you have succeeded in getting a lot of people to read this book.”

“But-“

And the smart thing to do, the normal thing to do, would have been to send her out, read a few chapters of the book, and have a secretary write her a very nice email about how “while the book was very good, it did not warrant rewriting the state economics curriculum,”

But Payton thought about when he nearly died in High School and River said his ambition had purpose. He hadn’t read the book and it looked like the most boring thing on earth. Something no child should be subjected to, honestly. How could Zana find so much purpose in this dry, pedantic book? 

“Send me a presentation with every single reason New York needs a new economics curriculum. I’ll talk to the secretary of education.” He said,

She grinned “Thank you so much.”

“Do you believe in this?”

“More than anything. This could end world poverty, just by increasing the number of people fighting it.”

“let’s make this happen.”

“You’ll have that PowerPoint by tonight, sir.”

“Call me Payton, we’re gonna be working together a lot.” He leaned forward, “I like your passion.”

That’s how he ended up on her campaign. Because it was hers the whole time. Even when he spent full days arguing about incentives with the budget committee, it was her campaign. Her talking points. He pulled strings. Got her meetings. Got her pull numbers. Got her idea written into state law. But somehow he knew she would have pulled it off without him.


End file.
